Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 [Review Essay] Cultural Justice and the Right to Thrive
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'Article 27 of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights is unequivocal in its claim that culture is central to human dignity and identity. Projects such as Ngapartji Ngapartji, Acoustic Life of Sheds, Project O and Namatjira are 'large-scale, long-term, process-based' partnerships with 'high-needs communities' (25) that intend to go beyond nationally circumscribed ideas about capital 'C' Culture to engage with communities whose stories have been systematically silenced, sidelined, buried or dismissed. Since Big hART's beginning as an arts-based project in Burnie, a community deeply affected by the closure of a paper mill in north-west Tasmania, Big hART has partnered with over fifty communities across Australia and toured its works in theatre, music and film, internationally. Testimony providing evidence of the personal, social and language-recovery outcomes of Big hART's work is affecting, making the impact of Rankin's call for cultural justice speak all the more persuasively as it relates to practice on multiple platforms to multiple audiences. Equally important to the communication of these impacts in this essay is the description of Big hART's five foundational principles or 'domains of change' (15): with individuals and communities (who are supported for at least 150 weeks), with the nation, with art and content, and with knowledge and learning.' (Publication abstract)

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    y separately published work icon Australasian Drama Studies no. 75 October 2019 18496337 2019 periodical issue

    'Papers, presentations and workshops ranged across many subjects, including: individual performers and practices; dramaturgies of acting, technology, disability and access; rehearsal and hierarchies of power; acting and ethics; women in the acting and performance industries; diversity on the stage; mainstream and independent work; comedy; physical practices; and wellbeing and mental health. Actresses have been particularly vocal about the need to challenge the gender pay gap, sexism, racism and male abuse of power, and there is a noticeable difference in the numbers of actresses of all ages who are prepared to speak out about the invisibility and marginalisation that too many have endured. The different moods of the actresses in these articles and interviews are also striking: the optimism and celebratory notes evident in Trevor Jones's piece on women performers of musical theatre and the joyously comic anarchy manifest in Sarah Peters' article on the Travelling Sisters are not, for example, sounded by Candy Bowers, who describes a landscape of white supremacy and 'the centring of whiteness' above all, and identifies a major problem with diversity and access to training as well as an unwillingness to celebrate intersectionality and diverse storytelling on Australian stages. Forsyth observes that many women turn to film and television not just because of financial issues and the limited roles that mature actresses are offered on the stage, but also because of the physical wear and tear on the body and mind.' (Mary Lockhurst, Editorial abstract)

    2019
    pg. 353-359
Last amended 7 Jan 2020 16:39:30
353-359 [Review Essay] Cultural Justice and the Right to Thrivesmall AustLit logo Australasian Drama Studies
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